Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has revealed that the rate at which children are viewing gambling adverts has dropped significantly in the last two years.
In a new report by the advertising watchdog, those under 16 have seen exposure to gambling ads on TV decrease by two-fifths since 2010, which is when the ASA began tracking advertising on TV.
On average, children in 2010 were seeing on average three gambling ads per week compared to just under two ads per week in 2023.
The ASA said that while children’s exposure to gambling TV ads has varied in the 14 years since it started monitoring advertising, it has remained fairly stable at lower levels for the past five years.
According to the ASA, children in England had the lowest exposure levels to gambling ads in the UK in 2023.
In Northern Ireland, exposure levels were just under two ads per week, and in Scotland, exposure was just under two and a half ads per week.
The watchdog also compared how many gambling ads a child saw in comparison to how many adults saw, and in 2023, children saw just under one TV ad for gambling on average for every six seen by adults.
On the results, the ASA said: “While the continued decline in children’s exposure to age-restricted TV ads is encouraging, we know that a lot of that is down to changing media habits, which is why we are also continuing to conduct proactive project work looking at what ads they are seeing online.”
The watchdog added that projects such as the Exposure Reporters and the 100 Children Report are helping to ensure that its regulation of advertising in the UK is thorough and effective.